The only “Victoria Cross” awarded to a woman is to go on display at the Imperial War Museum next month.
It was given to Elizabeth Webber Harris, who risked her life to nurse soldiers struck down by cholera on India’s northwest frontier in 1869.
Until 1921, women were not eligible for Britain’s highest award for gallantry, nor has it been awarded to a woman since. Officers of the 104th Bengal Fusiliers asked permission from Queen Victoria to give Mrs Webber Harris the gold replica in recognition of her “indomitable pluck during the cholera epidemic”.
As the only Englishwoman with the Bengal Fusiliers in Peshawar, Mrs Webber Harris — who had married an officer in the Bengal Fusiliers in 1859 — was said to have saved more lives with her “tender consolations” than the regimental surgeon did with his medicines.
Lord Ashcroft, who owns the medal, said she was “a remarkable woman who risked her life to save others with her selfless devotion. She was courageous and inspirational”.